Mean Girls Broadway

Doomacheal
Sep 30, 2018
3 min read

We all know the story of Mean Girls. So many iconic quotes and moments that are still dropped in conversation today. So it was no surprise that the hit film was adapted into a musical. Growing up I was never really that into the film. I thought it was a bit of fun but it never really resonated with me like I know it did for so many other people.

I’m a massive fan of Tina Fey so simply because of that I knew that I needed to check the musical out and honestly I was blown away by every aspect of the production.

For anyone who doesn’t know the plot of Mean Girls it tells the story of Cady Heron who relocates from the wilds of Africa to the wilds of high school in suburban Illinois. She knows no one and nothing about the unspoken rules, self deprecating code and blood grudges of girl world. Luckily she meets Damian and his art freak best friend Janis who take Cady under their wing at least until she is lured away by the shinier, more powerful queen bee Regina George. It’s a comedy about the vicious gifts of teenage girls and how we all have to stop emulating them.

The production stars Erika Henningsen as Cady Heron, Taylor Louderman as Regina George, Barrett Wilbert Weed as Janis Sarkisian, Grey Henson as Damian Hubbard, Ashley Park as Gretchen Wieners, Kate Rockwell as Karen Smith and Kyle Selig as Aaron Samuels.

Most of the plot from the film remains in tact with some changes being made to make the production more contemporary. With a larger focus being made on the impacts of social media. Many of the iconic lines have also been cut which some fans of the film may be disappointed with but I can understand why Tina Fey decided to include fresh jokes. You already know all of the jokes from the film. They’re 13 years old and the show just wouldn’t have any impact if all it was is rehashed gags from the film. The script changes are fantastic in my opinion and very culturally relevant in today’s day and age.

The music that Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin have created for the production is sooooo good. Since seeing the show I have had the cast recording on constant rotation on Spotify and there are some songs that I just can’t get out of my head. Revenge Party, World Burn and I’d Rather Be Me are absolute ear worms and total bops.

They’ve done such a fabulous job of giving the characters their own musical identities. Cady has underlying African tones, Regina’s songs sound like Bond villain themes and Janis has a raw rocky grunge edge to her tunes. It all just adds and extra layer to these characters creating a richer overall story.

Out of all of the performers two really stood out for me as powerhouses. Taylor Louderman’s Regina George was simply outstanding. Her voice was so powerful it reverberated right to the back of the theatre. The soaring heights that she was able to reach, smashing notes I didn’t even know existed took my breath away. In the film you don’t feel a lot of sympathy for Regina but the way in which Tina Fey has written the character and how Louderman interpretes the character allows you as an audience member to see another side of Regina and at times you’ll feel sorry for her.

Barrett Wilbert Weed’s Janis Sarkisian was such a great representation of my experience in high school and man her voice was just so top notch. She has this raw and emotional element to her singing that really expresses the feelings Janis is having throughout the musical.

The stage design was very cool and there wasn’t a lot of actual set on stage. Instead, the show uses huge projections to show the location of each scene along with displaying posts on social media. It’s a really creative way to make things look visually modern and appealing. It works really well and is something that I’d like to see more productions try out.

Mean Girls well and truly exceeded my expectations and is now my newest musical obsession. I have all my fingers and toes crossed that it will one day come to Australia as I think it is such a wonderful production that holds some very important messages for our teenage kids.